APRICOT. 
curious account of the modes of keeping apples 
among the ancients may be seen in Owen’s Agri- 
cultural Pursuits, or the 52d No. of the Quar- 
terly Journal of Agriculture. See articles Pyrus, 
Oxcuarn, EspALier, Grarting, Manic Actp, APHIS, 
Cyprr, and AntHonomus.—Tke Pomological Mag. 
—Ronald’s Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis—Ouwen’s 
Agricultural Pursuits —The Quarterly Journal of 
Science —Loudon’s Encyclopedia of Plants—Mu- 
ler’s Gardener's Dictionary.—Marshall on Plant- 
ing. — Loudon’s Encyclopedia of Gardening. — 
Loudon’s Gardener's Magazine.—Mawe's Garden- 
er’s Calendar.—Transactions of the London Hor- 
ticultural Society.— The Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture.—Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural 
Society.— Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England.—Treatise on the Culture of the Apple 
and Pear by T. A. Knight. 
APRICOT,—botanically Armenzaca. A genus 
of fruit-trees of the drupaceous tribe, bearing blos- 
soms of the rosaccous family, and fruit closely 
allied to the cherry and the plum. The common 
species, Armeniaca vulgaris, formerly ranked with 
the plum-trees, and called Prunus Armeniaca, has 
| been generally supposed to he a native of Armenia; 
but it is assigned by some geographical botanists 
to the whole of the Caucasian region, by others 
to the portion of Africa which lies north of the 
Niger and south of the Atlas, and by others to 
the north-western districts of China. It almost 
covers some of the Caucasian heights to their 
summit; it isa large, spreading, profusely branched 
tree in Japan; it has sported itself into many va- 
rieties, both single-flowered and double-flowered, 
and is extensively cultivated as an ornamental 
plant, in most known parts of the Chinese terri- 
tories. It was known in Italy, under the name 
of Przecocia, in the time of Dioscorides ; and it is 
supposed to have heen introduced to Great Bri- 
tain in 1524, by Wolfe, a French priest, and gar- 
dener to Henry VIII. Its English name is either 
a corruption of the Latin word pracose, denoting 
earliness of fruiting, or, more probably, a corrup- 
tion of the names by which it is known in Tus- 
cany and Arabia, and which seem, in their turn, 
to be corruptions of the ancient name preecocia. 
The apricot tree, in its normal character, grows 
to the height of about fifteen feet, but, in its 
numerous varieties, and under diversified culture, 
varies in stature from a small undershrub to a 
tree of thirty feet in height. Some of the dwarf- 
ish and double-flowering varieties are highly 
ornamental, and may be cultivated in pots; some 
of the shrubby and the middle-sized varieties 
make a handsome figure in shrubberies and gar- 
dens; and even the tallest and best-fruiting vari- 
eties may be so planted and managed as to con- 
tribute almost as much pleasure to the eye by 
their blossoms and foliage as enjoyment to the 
palate by their fruit. “This tree, as well as most 
sorts of fruit-trees,’ remarks Hanbury, “is ex- 
ceeded by few in ornament; for, being permitted 
to grow in its natural state to twenty or thirty 
feet high, with all its luxuriancy of branches, 
covered with their delightful heart-shaped leaves, 
what a glorious figure will it present! But when 
we reflect on the fine appearance such @ tree 
must make early in the spring, when covered all 
over with the bloom of such fine flowers as those 
of the apricot are known to be, this enhances the 
value; and either of these motives is sufficient 
for introducing these trees into certain planta- 
tions. Add to this, some of the sorts, in warm 
well-sheltered situations, will produce fruit when 
growing in this manner, as well as if planted and 
trained against walls; so that additional returns 
will be made by the fruit to the curious planter 
of these trees.” 
The apricot, in a general view, is one of the 
earliest of our wall fruits, and next in esteem to 
the peach. The ripe fruit is second to no pro- 
duction of our gardens for jam or other preserves: 
it makes an exquisite liqueur, and gives a deli- 
cious flavour to ice; it excels all other garden 
fruits, in both beauty and agreeableness, for the 
purposes of pastry; and it possesses the recom- 
mendation, when used as a dessert, of being plea- 
santly astringent to the palate and somewhat 
strengthening tothe stomach. But the over-ripe 
fruit is divested of a large proportion of its aroma 
and its other elements of delicious flavour, and is 
clammy, comparatively insipid, and not so easy 
of digestion; and the unripe fruit is acidulous 
and strongly astringent, yet forms an excellent 
material fora tart. The apricot, like the plum, 
may be gathered unripe, and placed in a dairy, 
an ice-house, or any other cool place, to undergo 
a slow ripening; and will thus become available 
as a dessert during two or three weeks longer 
than its natural period. It is a. fruit, however, 
which agrees ill with the opposite process of 
forcing. 
Thirty-nine varieties of apricot tree have been | 
described in the Horticultural Society’s Cata- | 
logue; about fifteen or twenty have been closely 
examined by scientific botanists; and about eight | | 
or ten have been recommended by the most prac- 
tised horticulturists for general adoption into — 
gentlemen’s gardens. All these varieties are the 
offspring of Armeniaca vulgaris; and additional 
to them is the peach-apricot tree, producing a 
large fruit, and supposed to be a hybrid between | 
the apricot and the peach. Yet three other spe- 
cies of Armeniaca have recently been introduced 
to Great Britain; the Siberian, A. Siberica, in 
1788; the thick-fruited, A. dasycarpa, in 1800; 
and the Brigancon, A. Brigantiaca, in 1819. The 
varieties of the common apricot recommended 
for general adoption by the conductors of 
the Pomological Magazine are the hemskirke, 
usually ripe in the end of July; the royal, 
ripe in the end of August; the large early, 
ripe in the middle of July; the Breda, ripe in 
August ; the Moorpark, also ripe in August ; the 
Brussels, ripe in the beginning of August ; the 
orange, ripe in August; and the Turkey, ripe 
